Home is Where the Hurt is
by Rugiku
Summary: SMASH! fic. 'War is the most idiotic creation of man,' thinks Lenalee. 'No wonder Neah rebelled against the Earl. Not for man, not for he, but for the future.' All that is left after the final battle is confusion and a swordsman dearly missing his sword.


Home is Where the Hurt is

War is the most idiotic creation of man, decided Lenalee.

She had watched her world be completely destroyed without the dirt on the ground even shift. Then Lenalee witnessed a battle that revolved around her where friends were enemies and loyalties shifted like the wind.

Before she knew it, the final battle was over in a flash and by an act of mercy from her hated god, every comrade that had died had returned.

Her bare feet were cold, chilled by London's damp late-Autumn. Footsteps crunched in the rotting leaves, avoiding chunks of rubble strewn about.

"Now where is that golem…? It better not have been eaten again." muttered the person approaching from behind. At the voice, Lenalee shivered; fear, anticipation and anxiety twisted her stomach as Allen Walker called out to her.

"Hey, Lenalee! Komui is looking for you."

Lenalee jumped and turned; an expression akin to a deer in the headlights plastered to her face. Allen was wearing his exorcist uniform, although tattered from battle. _We have to get Johnny to make a new uniform for him. _Lenalee thought absently.

The girl saw that he was different on the battlefield compared to him now. Visions of the darker 14th version of the Allen she knew so well killing the puzzle pieces of her world flashed before her eyes, causing her to flinch. Allen watched carefully.

"You're still scared of me." It was not a question, just a statement of the obvious; Lenalee still was afraid of Allen.

They were silent for a moment, Lenalee obstinately staring at the ground and Allen thinking of a way to tell her that he was good. Definitely good.

"Have you seen Tim?" Allen asked, trying to prompt her to talk.

Silence.

"Look! I have a normal arm now," Allen produced his left arm, smooth and unmarked unlike his previous arm. Lenalee still remembered the mottled texture and bruised purple shade of his Innocence before he left many years ago.

Tears welled up in her eyes and (of course) Allen panicked, thinking he had said something wrong.

"I-I'm sorry, Lenalee. Don't cry, please!"

"You…"

"Huh?" Allen stopped.

"ALLEN, YOU JERK!" Lenalee screeched and kicked him as hard as she could.

Reeling back in pain, Allen let Lenalee hit as much of him as possible until her anger drained out and she was back to crying into his shoulder. Her toes throbbing from kicking barefoot, Lenalee sat heavily on the leafy, broken floor, clutching Allen. Allen, being a gentleman, patted her on the back and rubbed the painful bruises growing on his torso, astutely staying quiet.

"You did say I could kick you as hard as I could, Allen." Allen felt Lenalee pout against his shoulder as he chuckled.

Lenalee sighed, releasing pent up tension.

"You're not going to leave again, right?" she asked, afraid of Allen's answer. Lenalee would have nightmares about the final battle as she had when Allen abandoned the Order and stepped into the Ark. Flashes of broken rubble, freakish monsters, blackened eyes and disturbingly warped grins flooded Lenalee's mind.

Shaking her gently, Allen sensed her fear; 'I'm not going to turn into a Noah again, Lenalee. I won't attack you. Not like the Fourteenth."

"At least with the end of this disaster, we won't need to pick sides, right?" Lavi and Timothy sauntered up to them from behind a boulder, startling both. "Think about the future, Lenalee! The past is for the Bookmen to remember."

"Why are you here Lavi?" Lenalee peered up at Lavi and Timothy, who had grown so much in the past few years in which she had lived with the young boy.

"He's not meant to be here," snapped an irritated voice, closely followed by Kanda who immediately scowled at the rabbit. "He's supposed to be talking to Komui about replacing Bookman."

"Aw~! I knew you missed me, Yu." Lavi immediately turned tail to run away from an enraged swordsman sorely missing his sword.

Miranda stepped out from behind a tree and found her friends acting as if the war had never happened. "E-eliade?" Miranda jumped and turned around, spotting Arystar Krory peering from around another tree. "Allen and Lavi are over there, Krory." Miranda smiled kindly and led the shy man to the group.

"Oh, speak of the man. Krory, you're alive!" Lavi was picked up by the scruff of the neck by Marie, blindly listening to the noise they were making. "I could hear you guys from half a mile away."

"The Order still exists and through the eyes of the Vatican, you're still classified as a Noah, at best a traitor to the cross." Lavi added as he ran past. All eyes turned to the white-haired man sitting next to Lenalee.

"But he helped us win this war! He practically single-handedly defeated the Millennium Earl. Without his help, the Catholic Church would have been defeated and the world destroyed," wailed Miranda who had overheard the running conversation along with Krory.

"It isn't the truth that matters. It's what the Church _believes_ to be true that will be history," Lavi became solemn and stopped running around in circles akin to a rabbit. "Allen is still considered a criminal."

"B-but that's not fair!" cried Lenalee. "We'll protect him then, from the Order and the Church. We can keep runni-"

"Lenalee, you'll be fighting your brother and everyone in the Order… your entire world. Do you think you can out-run the _world_?" Kanda was blunt, but correct, and Lenalee knew it.

"Just think about what we're going to do after this, Lenalee." Allen smiled brightly. "Just close your eyes and say it out loud. It will happen, trust me."

Lenalee took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to visualise what would happen when everyone was reunited again.

"Everyone will be so surprised and happy when we come back to the Order. We'll have a big group hug, Kanda of course will scowl ferociously and Komui will start crying. We'll get patched up by the nurse who'll be griping at us over how we always get hurt but she'll mean well." Lenalee relaxed a little, thinking hard and almost hearing the ruckus that would happen.

"We'll talk for a while, then Timcanpy will return stuck in some poor cat's mouth. Jerry will cook up a storm, more than enough for you to eat, Allen. The Science division will celebrate over not having to do so much paperwork anymore and…" Lenalee stopped to think.

"What else will happen, Lenalee? Don't stop." Allen's voice was calm but a little strained as he kept an eye on the cloaked Crow standing nearby on a grassy knoll.

"Reever, Johnny and the rest will say that they'll miss my coffee after all of the time I've been making it for them. Komui will break out another one of his inventions, and Kanda will probably grab someone else's sword and hack it to bits after it begins causing damage." Lenalee paused, wracking her brains for more ideas as Allen's arm tightened around her.

"Hopefully, Rouvelier would be buried in mountains of paperwork for resigning employees. They'll announce that the exorcists are allowed to go home and then we'll eat all of Jerry's wonderful food." Allen chuckled at the mental picture as another Crow joined the first.

"Lavi and Timothy will probably fall asleep straight after so we'll have to throw a blanket over both of them. We'll play cards, and then you and Kanda will get into a fight over the game. Krory will lose spectacularly, and we'll cheer Marie on as he goes one-on-one with Allen. Then Allen will be banned from the game because he's too good. The adults will talk for a bit longer, drinking a bit of wine and then we'll all fall into a blissful sleep." Lenalee smiled happily and opened her eyes only to have them snap closed in shock.

The Exorcists were surrounded by an entire regiment of the Crows; Rouvelier's elite covert group.

"What do you want, Crows?" Kanda demanded. Lavi drew a hidden knife and Krory growled his disapproval of the newcomers, the rest forming a protective shield around Allen and Lenalee.

"We're here to escort you back to the Order so relax. We're not going to turn anyone in. Especially you, Walker," The lead Crow drew back their hood to reveal Link's face, for once not in its deadpan expression but one of rueful apology. "We're glad you're alive."

"…Link; you're one of the creepy guys in the cloaks?" Allen's tone was one of bewilderment.

"Yes, what of it?" Link knew he had to just be patient with Allen, although at times it was hard to not yell at the boy.

"Doesn't Rouvelier boss you around?"

Link smirked. "Not any more."

"So, we're going back?" Miranda asked tentatively. Link nodded as they walked toward the pile of rubble that was a ruined church and then added, "Oh, and we've found General Cross too."

Allen immediately turned a sickly green, which faded into white, and then finally flushed into a bright, angry red.

"We'll give you the details when we get back and have a debriefing so relax, Allen." Link said to tumultuous laughs at Allen's reaction.

Allen couldn't help but grin.

All the time spent in the Ark alone had made him lonely and sorely missing his friends. In there he was left isolated, inundated with dreams, memories and memories of dreams, but on many occasions he desired the company of another, and not of a grinning shadow in a mirror or a window.

It was but an accident that led Lenalee (and subsequently the Noah) literally to his doorstep, but enemy or not, he cherished the reunion with relative humanity.

But all that was behind him; the Noah, the Innocence, the Ark. All had been destroyed in a final battle and all was good.

_I'm going home_, Allen thought. _My real home._

Another turn and they all stood in shocked silence…

…Before being squelched in a huge, squishy, stinky, happy hug by the thousands in the Order.

_Thanks, Mana. _

_If you had never died and given me purpose in life, I would never have been as happy as I would be now. _

**Personal Details**

**Name: Victoria Zhao**

**Penname/Alias: Rugiku**

**Contact number: 0402502543**

**Email address: .com**

**Location: (Town, State/Country) Sydney, NSW/Australia**

**Can SMASH! display/publish your entry? (Y/N): Y**

**Entry Details**

**Title: Home is Where the Hurt Is**

**Rating: (G/PG) PG**

**Prompt: Disaster**

**Fandom/Series: D. Gray-man**

**Word Count: 1706**

**Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-man or profit off this fanfic. All rights belong to Hoshino Katsura. **


End file.
